A Higher Warning?

A few days ago, Pat Robertson, a prominent American evangelist and who has been called a religious nut by his critics, said that the frequency of the natural disasters that occured recently are signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

On an Oct. 9 episode of CNN's "Late Edition," the preacher noted that hurricanes such as Katrina and Rita and earthquakes like the ones that struck Pakistan this past weekend and the tsunami-causing one that struck Indonesia last December are hitting with "amazing regularity."

The Bible does say that before the end times, there will be "wars and rumors of wars", and there will be an increase in "famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:5-8)

But according to scientists, Earth is doing what she always does. Seth Stein, a seismologists at Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences,

"I don't think there's any reason to believe the frequency of large earthquakes has changed over the past million years," Stein told LiveScience. "That's contrary to everything we know about how the Earth works."

As to the hurricanes which seem to be occuring more frequently than in the past, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), says that we are experiencing a highly active hurricane cycle which can last between 20-30 years.

So what say you? Signs of the end times or just Mother Nature doing what she does best? :-)